The Arizona Immigration Law — It Was Only a Matter of Time

I think most of the negative reaction to the recently signed immigration law in Arizona has it exactly backwards. If you told me that by carrying personal identification and producing it when asked by state police, I could play some role in preventing one of my countrymen from meeting the same fate as Rob Krentz, I would happily do it. I would consider it a small price to pay, as I do each time I show identification at legal border crossings. The legal residents of Arizona, of whatever race or ethnicity, should be banding together to protect the other legal residents of their state, of whatever race or ethnicity, against harm that results from illegal crossings of their southern border. Failing to protect each other from violent crime — not from a request for identification from state police — is what “undermines basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.”

Andrew Samwick is a professor of economics and Director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

He is most widely known for his work on the economics of retirement, and his scholarly work has covered a range of topics, including pensions, saving, taxation, portfolio choice, and executive compensation.

In July 2003, Samwick joined the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, serving for a year as its chief economist and helping to direct the work of about 20 economists in support of the three Presidential appointees on the Council.